Since we want a new moderator to visit the site daily, I think that one day's worth of applications is good enough .

Please vote for our newest moderator!

The choices are as follows (in order of application):

Squishy
A fairly new member of the forum, Squishy, however, has over 100 posts, thus making it to the top 15 posters. He visits the forum daily, and is a moderator of another forum. Squishy promises us the be fair and square with everyone.

hwybear
A member of the site for almost a year, also the highest poster on the site with over 750 posts. Being the only admitted policeman on the board, hwybear has been an invaluable member of our community by providing us with the view from the other side of the "fence". He visits www.OHTA.ca daily, and is also an admin of another website.

Radar Identified
A member of the site for a half a year, Radar Identified has participated in many discussions. A driving enthusiast, Radar Identified visits the board daily and is eager to help our moderation team.

All nominees are in good standing with the current administration and moderation team.

This position is voluntary. Everyone, including current moderators and administrator can vote in this election. Nominees may vote for themselves.

A moderator is responsible for removing any and all offensive material that is posted on the board. A moderator is responsible for forum and topic moderation. A Moderator works as a part of the team to keep this forum clean, respectful, thoughtful, and fun.

Hmm...I'll have to think about this. While I would love the job, hwybear has seniority and brings a unique point of view to the site. There's just something about his attitude that demands respect.

Can't we all get hired? I'm part of a team of ten moderators on the other site. While it takes a bit more organization to keep from stepping on each other's toes, one of us is always 'patrolling' the site and things are caught and dealt with quickly. I see the "newest user" text change at least twice a day, so we're growing very quickly; quicker than the other site I moderate, although we lag behind in number of posts per day.

In the end I'll probably stroke my ego and vote for myself, but I predict Bear wins by a landslide.

Last edited by Squishy on Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

What's the context of that formula? Coefficients of friction can change according to velocity as the material heats up, but I think we've always assumed a constant coefficient in the formulas I worked with.

As for the rest of the challenges, I submit an alternate entry where I have combined both the Bookm and Foxworthy family albums.

I fully expect Bear to have a Boston Cream love ballad, so I decline to try to compete with that.

EDIT: I thought that formula was for braking distance, and I was right!

Well, a sliding tire would use the coefficient of kinetic friction which may change as the tire heats up (depending on how long you slide), but as the coefficient is an empirical value, we just look it up on a table and those changes should be sort of "averaged out". For a tire that hasn't locked up, you would use the coefficient of static friction which I doubt would change during hard braking.

EDIT2: Any bonus points for retooling the equation to account for incline?

where theta is the inclination of the roadway, positive for uphill and negative for downhill. On an incline, the Normal force is reduced because only a fraction of gravity acts perpendicular to the plane of the roadway (cosine theta), but another force is added from gravity acting parallel to the plane of the roadway (sine theta).

Now, assuming a coefficient of static friction of 0.992 and a coefficient of kinetic friction of 0.671, can someone rearrange either equation to show the ratio of braking distance between full lock and 'threshold' braking? (The coefficients are taken from actual data from Goodyear)

Hint: the end result requires very little math.

Last edited by Squishy on Sun May 17, 2009 9:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well, if they're all crazy enough to volunteer for the job, we might as well take advantage of the opportunity. Early in the game it will reduce the individual workload and as the forum grows, there will eventually be the need for 3 people anyway.

What kind of a man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.

This thread got me digging for more information on the braking distance formula. What I found is that mass does have an effect on braking distance, but not in the 'ideal' system considered by that equation. The friction coefficient of a tire will change depending on load and tire pressure. High loads lead to a reduced friction coefficient, and tire pressures have a sweet spot where above and below that will lead to a reduced friction coefficient. Also, larger mass requires more time for the braking system to build up to maximum stopping force, which also increases stopping distance.

So, in closing, the friction coefficient is not constant. The skill test was a trick question! Shenanigans!